History of CBeebies
The Early Days (1999-2002) Flashback to 1999. It all started with a 30-year old presenter named Chris Jarvis, who was studying to be a pre-school teacher at University of Manchester. It was there that Chris learnt all about child development, child psychology, how children think, and the importance of play in the children’s lives. He loved the course and enjoyed campus life. He recalls, “At university, there were maybe four or five guys and over four hundred women, which was a bit overwhelming. I think the blokes got together as a bit of a bonding thing.” Most of the four or five blokes at university were musicians and included Sue Monroe (puppeteer for Playbus and CEO of the Baby Einstein Company) and Sid Sloane (producer for Broom Cupboard continuity), so they naturally jammed together. Chris would often ask Andy and John Day (who were part of the band CBeebies) to join them for these lunchtime sessions. These sessions were so enjoyable that the guys decided to take them to London and busk for fun and the occasional coins thrown into Sid's continuity scripts. Chris enlisted a cast member of Teletubbies, Pui Fan Lee, to play the 4th presenter for the busking TV channel. And so, armed with their knowledge of early childhood education and a developing cachet of BBC children's programmes, this presenting group would take their first step towards success. In fact, during one of these busking sessions, John Day led the presenters with a new CBBC programme that was fun to watch and would also become as popular as the Teletubbies. The programme was one of CBeebies' biggest hits, the Tweenies. Andy Day later recommended a TV programme he created loosely a combination of Play School ''and ''Playbus which featured a purple dragon puppet and 2 human presenters, it would be called Tikkabilla. Chris was nearing the end of his university studies in Early Childhood Education and would soon be looking for a job. He thought that if he launched a children's telly channel as popular as CBBC he might increase his chances of a job as a pre-school teacher. So he pulled together his busking group as well as another children's TV presenter from university, Liam Dolan, and in 2002 launched a TV channel. Chris recalls, “The very first link of the channel was loosely inspired by the premiere tour of Play School, a show that Pui, Sue, Sid, Nicole and I grew up with. We could put in two pet rabbits, a lift, and also incorporate what we’d learnt about children and what they respond to. And that was the first day of CBeebies, February 11th, 2002.” The presenters now needed a name for their new channel and so they looked to Andy and John Day's band name. CBeebies seemed a good synonym for pre-schoolers and seemed like a fun name. The aim was simply to introduce the programmes and the highest hope was to get the channel launched (and for Chris to get a job teaching). BBC Approves CBeebies Clare Bradley, a TV producer and close friend to the Days, created a programme called Storymakers, followed by Brian Jameson's ''Balamory ''and Simon Bynes' ''Fi''mbles. This trio was all perfect for the channel. Chris did get a job as a pre-school teacher at Young England Emanuel in London and the fivesome approached the BBC, who are the leaders in early childhood broadcast, in hope that they would launch CBeebies. Sue remembers, “When we took it to the BBC, we wrote a screed about our philosophy, quite an academic kind of treatise really I guess. I think maybe they thought, there must be something to this.” At the time, a new CEO of BBC programming had just been appointed, Greg Dyke. Pui recalls, “Greg already knew about us because we were signed to EMI Music (where he had worked) as the band CBeebies, so she had seen that success.” In 2002, children’s television was all programmes and no presenters. Greg Dyke recounts, “At the time, I really felt that it was probably time for something different and this was what CBBC and CBeebies presented us.” And so in his first week of being the CEO of BBC, Greg signed CBeebies aswell as the new CBBC channel! The CBeebies characters and presenters started to play some UK tours to help promote the forthcoming TV channel. Sid recalls that after The Presenters performed at a childcare centre in Nottingham, England in early February 2002, Liam Dolan felt uncomfortable about performing live and resigned from the channel. Liam's resignation took place four weeks before the launch of the channel. All About CBeebies CBeebies then made an inspired decision, they would shoot a full-length video of classical music and toys -- favourite things featured in children's videos. The World of Words video shoot was a "do it yourself" affair as the lack of funds dictated. Pui and Sid helped pick poems they grew up with which were perfect for the project. Chris recalls, “Our studies told us that children prefer simple poems as they are concrete and centred thinkers.” The children singing the Alphabet Song in the video were small loans of family and friends. Do-it-Yourself Touring CBeebies then begun touring around Britain and, in many ways, they have never stopped. In the early tours, they worked with Playbus Associations, Comfort Mummies’ Groups, pre-schools and community groups who would act as promoters while also raising funds for their own organisations. The number of shows they performed in those early days grew as their reputation for putting on a great show also grew. Chris, Pui, Nicole and Sue travelled in a van together with a trailer, while Sid drove a van with the PA system. CBeebies loaded and set up the equipment themselves and at times played three to four shows a day, 26 days in a row. And so each year, CBeebies would release a new video and album and tour for ten months of the year to promote it. Eventually, this increased to two titles per year and even more. Sid recalls that in 2003 in one tour CBeebies performed 63 shows in 17 days, with only one day off in that period. The original CBeebies Car video featured a CBeebies Car made of plywood, held up on plastic milk crates and constructed by Pui! The early videos were eventually all re-shot, though you can catch glimpses of the original productions on the internet and many people have pointed out that in that first video it was Pui that drove the car. Given Pui’s penchant for sleeping, it was good that Sid eventually replaced her as the driver! And while the production quality of those early videos was rudimentary, the early childhood principles CBeebies applied and the infectious melodies of the songs meant that CBeebies Car (released as Dance Party in the USA) remains one of the highest selling videos of CBeebies’ history. 500 Shows a Year By 2005 and 2006, CBeebies was performing 500 shows a year in Britain, which meant three to four shows a day. The shows themselves were just under an hour. Greg recalls, “We might play three shows in Lithgow one day, three the next day in Bathurst, four shows in Dubbo, then the same in Young and Griffith where we had sold out four shows of 1,000 people.” CBeebies relentless touring schedule helped build their audience who loved the music and videos, they released. CBeebies started to receive sales awards for the sales of their music and videos which achieved gold, platinum and multi-platinum status, as well as APRA awards for the most performed song. CBeebies were sometimes playing up to four shows a day right around the country. The shows were energetic and joyful events that seemed to sell out with little more than through the word-of-mouth of parents. This is well before the internet and the concept of blogs existed and, although the medium has changed, a parent’s recommendation often has more credibility than an expensive advertising campaign.